Which to use
“loutre” and “louve” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,056
- “loutre” frequency rank
- #27,509
- “louve” frequency rank
- 59565
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loutre | louve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de mammifère carnivore de la famille des martres, grand à peu près comme un renard, mais plus bas de pattes, et à tête plate et obtuse, semi-aquatiques, qui vit au bord des rivières. | Loup femelle. |
Where the eye mixes loutre and louve
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. loutre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against louve's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses loutre with louve
A purely visual mix-up. loutre (\lutʁ\) and louve (\luv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loutre is recorded at frequency rank #32,056, classified as anoun, pronounced \lutʁ\. louve is at rank #27,509, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luv\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 59565, this pair ranks #102,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loutre vs louve
Shared letters: elou. Private to "loutre": rt. Private to "louve": v.
"loutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "louve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "loutre" for "louve" ever safe?
Which is more common, "loutre" or "louve"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "loutre" and "louve" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "loutre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "louve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #102,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loutre" and "louve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loutre vs lure". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #102,444 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.